The Seventeenth Edition provides comprehensive coverage of all areas of constitutional law, including judicial review, separation of powers, federalism, due process, equal protection, free speech, and religious liberty. It emphasizes constitutional law as a species of law, and aims to enable students who use it to practice constitutional law as lawyers. It also seeks to illuminate the historical, theoretical, and philosophical background that bears on constitutional law and informs its practice. The 17th edition thoroughly revises, updates and streamlines this classic casebook, emphasizing contemporary problems in areas from the war on terror to new uses of the Internet. Highlights of the 17th edition include updates on extensive coverage of the War on Terror (executive discretion on latest Guantanomo case in Chapter 6; update on decisions involving congressional civil rights enforcement power; the latest First Amendment cases involving "fleeting expletives" and religious monuments in public parks; updates on campaign finance (plus look at "millionaire exception"); voter identification requirements; and the right to bear arms (Second Amendment) individual right (Heller).